Teams

One of the most important features of life is conversation. Through conversation we form and reform our life experiences; we create and recreate our meanings and understandings; and we construct our realities and ourselves. When possibility is enhanced… we can take the necessary action to address what concerns or troubles us… and accomplish what we want.
— Harlene Anderson

The above quote from a respected colleague is the foundation that influences my clinical practice as a professional.  Through my experience, I have to come to learn that counseling is most beneficial when possibilities of hope, healing, and action are developed through meaningful conversations.  I see that my role as a therapist is to help patients to explore their life’s narratives such that it enables them to explore new alternatives in order to develop new meaning in theirs lives.

My primary focus in private practice is individuals and couples dealing with a variety of relationship issues, including but not limited to: infidelity, domestic violence, and trauma.  I plan to achieve, through meaningful conversation, the healing of such wounds. In other words, enabling these couples to heal from their hurt and pain and transition to a healthier stage in their relationship. A major focus of my clinical work includes working with clients dealing with life transitions (i.e.  starting college, changing residences or careers, or grieving the loss of a relationship).  The emotional rollercoaster of life transitions can be impactful and navigating away can be tough to manage. We may perceive life transitions to be inherently difficult, but the reality is most life transitions, like other life stresses, can be manageable depending on how you view them.  Through meaningful conversation, I can help clients to gain a different perspective of their life transitions: to help clients realize they have the power to decide how much of an impact the life transition will have on their life; to help clients realize that with each transition old memories are not to be forgotten; and finally to help clients realize that with each transition there is always the exciting prospect of new, lasting memories to be made. Ultimately, it is my passion to meet you where you are at and through meaningful conversation get you where you want to be in your life.

Lily Ha is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#202496) in Texas. She completed her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas and also completed her doctoral coursework in Marriage and Family Therapy at St. Mary’s University. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate and her dissertation is focused on the experiences of second generation Vietnamese Americans and their families.

Lily has completed an Emotion Focused Therapy externship and a received her certificate of completion for International Collaborative Practices from the Houston Galveston Institute in Houston, Texas.  She is a trained facilitator in the Twogether in Texas curriculum for couples looking to enhance skills and seeking premarital counseling and is a certified facilitator of Prepare/Enrich, the most widely used and validated premarital assessment and training program. Finally, she is EMDR trained for work with trauma and recovery.

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I believe psychotherapy should be a transformational experience. We often get stuck in patterns of relating and being that, at one time, were adaptive and protective, but no longer help us to be our best selves. Psychotherapy helps to understand those patterns, develop strategies to disrupt them, and create new ways of being and relating that get us closer to our personal and professional goals. I strive to create an environment that is warm, nonjudgmental, collaborative, culturally sensitive, and challenging enough to explore and make necessary changes in areas of your life that we identify together as being important to address. I am an integrative therapist and draw from humanistic, cognitive behavioral, mindfulness, and interpersonal modalities to help clients achieve symptom relief and lasting change.

Dr. Jennifer Fast was initially licensed as a clinical psychologist in Illinois in 2011 and has been a licensed clinical psychologist in Texas since 2018.

She has trained and worked in a variety of settings including higher education, community mental health, and residential facility. She graduated with her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and classical studies from Loyola University-Chicago. Dr. Fast’s areas of specialty include treatment of adults, young adults and adolescents, LGBTQIA+, trauma, crisis assessment, group psychotherapy, clinical supervision and training, and community/organizational interventions. She provides treatment from a feminist and humanistic framework and integrates other evidenced-based interventions to meet the individual needs and goals of clients. She is also trained and practices Discernment Counseling for couples on the brink of divorce. Dr. Fast views psychological and cognitive assessment as an empowering experience for clients and as an important adjunct to psychotherapy.

Before making Texas her home, Dr. Fast served as Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Health and Wellness at Lake Forest College. She was active as an area chair for the National Association of Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education; served on the Lake County Sexual Assault Prevention Consortium; and served as a consultant for the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Wellness Task Force. She has presented nationally on sexual assault prevention in higher education and clinical supervision and training as well as providing trainings on diversity and identity, management and leadership. Dr. Fast also treated individuals and couples in a private practice setting.

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Perfectionism is a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.
— Brené Brown

We all need a safe, compassionate, empathetic, and no judgment zone space to have a moment to process what is going on inside of us and around us. It is of the upmost importance to learn how to stop, reflect, and discover the source of our frustration and pain and how to express and articulate that without the residual feelings of shame and guilt for doing so. We should never be afraid to show up and show our authentic self to those we love and deserve the respect to be seen and heard. Maybe you are at a point in your relationship where you are stuck and feel immobile and unable to communicate with one another the depths of your fears, hurts, frustration, or love for one another without the repeated cycle of shutting down, isolating, pulling away, or chasing after one another yet still not resolving anything. When faced with any sort of distress in life with your partner or other facets of life, it is easy to get caught up in negative repetitive sequences of interaction that lead to feelings of isolation from the connection that you crave. This tends to present itself as walls of anger and insecurities and stand in the way of the connections you are yearning for. One of the gifts therapy provides is learning to find yourself and learn about your partner, while learning to have compassion for yourself and your partner and be free from the cycle of shame and guilt that plagues us and distorts getting to know our authentic self and our relationships. Sometimes change, whether welcomed, anticipated, or unwanted, can be difficult to adjust to. Other areas that can be difficult and impact our relationship with our partners are unresolved issues from our past. As Brené Brown says, sometimes the most important and bravest thing we can do, is just show up. That is therapy-just showing up.

My goal as your therapist is to present new ways to express new experiences in therapy, that can make you both more aware of one another and make sense of the world in a new and significant way. Individual identities can be formed and transformed by the quality of our relationships and interactions with others. Let us make them healthy! When it comes to therapy, I believe in a client-centered and collaborative approach. While I may be an expert on how therapy works and the process, I am not the expert on your life and the difficulties that you are experiencing. This is why therapy is collaborative and person-centered. I work best with individuals and couples that are committed to breaking their painful, unproductive cycles and are ready to explore, change and grow. Everyone deserves to be understood, acknowledged, loved, and to belong. We have the ability to be freed from the pain of disconnection, and to be our authentic self in meaningful, fulfilling relationships. It is my belief that when we have healthy and emotionally intelligent individuals, we have healthy and emotionally intelligent couples and families.

For couples that love each other deeply but feel stuck, I offer support with resolving issues surrounding extended family and spiritually, strengthening intimacy, recovery and healing from betrayal, improving communication and connection, decreasing conflict, infertility, expecting and new parents, and multicultural couples. For those that are dating or engaged and want to focus on things such as wedding planning frustrations, family planning/children, strengths and areas impacting personality dynamics and communication skills, and culture and spirituality. For families or individuals, I offer support in navigating through adult children/parent relationships and the transitional phases between adolescent daughter/mother relationships.

Dr. Christian is a Licensed Professional Counselor (#69091) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate (#202828) in Texas under the supervision of Dr. Paul Stanford (#202565). She graduated from Dallas Baptist University with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and double minored in Criminal Justice and Social Psychology, and also received a Master of Arts in Counseling (MAC) from DBU, and has a Ph.D. in Family Therapy from Texas Woman’s University. Her love for helping others becoming more loving and authentic towards themselves started when she worked with adolescents and their families in a church setting and then expanded her work to women and children receiving services in a domestic violence shelter. Dr. Christian has done seminars and been invited as a guest speaker in many churches to discuss sexuality and faith and how to talk to your adolescents about sex. Before venturing into private practice, Dr. Christian has worked with startup private pay mental health and substance abuse facilities and has spent a majority of her time introducing, creating workbook content, and conducting couples and family therapy in rehab facilities. Dr. Christian did part of her doctoral clinical training at UT Southwestern’s Family Therapy Clinic where she was under the leadership of Connie Cornwell. That experience led her to Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and to obtain an Externship opportunity under the teaching of Dr. Sue Johnson. Dr. Christian is also Gottman Level 1 Certified and a facilitator of Prepare/Enrich.

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Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.

— Brené Brown

Are you an individual who simply desires to connect with others effectively? Do you yearn to engage with your partner, friends, family, or others and find it difficult to do so? Couples, do you feel you have been disconnected and can’t seem to find your way back to romance? Does your relationship seem distant and you wonder what happened to being best friends, lovers, and companions? Perhaps there are times you both have different opinions about how to raise your children, develop healthy boundaries with your external family members and need help? Maybe you are a blended family and it’s challenging to agree what’s best for everyone in your new family system?

I pursued both the Educational and Mental Health fields because I simply believe in people. I get it. Life simply is sometimes hard. My desire as a clinician is to develop a safe environment for my clients where they can be vulnerable and offer a space where their voices are heard. I am a passionate therapist who desires to equip clients with the tools and strategies they need to develop positive changes for their lives. I want to help them not miss moments of happiness that are right in front of them. With over 30 years of experience working with individuals, couples, and families, I have supported my clients with the tools needed towards coping with life’s challenges and finding their personal solutions.

I’m experienced in working with premarital/marital, divorce, infidelity, blended families, parenting (within all developmental stages: early childhood to adulthood), adult children and parental communication patterns, coping skills, stress/anxiety, depression, grief/loss, and medical family therapy (cancer, alopecia areata, disabilities).

Dr. Buchanan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Associate (#202829) in Texas and is under the supervision of Dr. Paul Stanford (#202565). She graduated from the Texas Christian University with a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education, a Master of Education from Texas Christian University, and has a Ph.D. in Family Therapy from Texas Woman’s University. She brings a history of experience working as an educator, teaching a variety of student populations from early childhood to graduate studies including at-risks youth, special needs, and many other student populations. She also has experience training in the church including keynote speaking, parenting and couples classes, youth mentoring, and more. If applicable, she utilizes her clients’ faith and spirituality, whatever they may be, as useful tools to aid in the change process. These experiences have allowed her the ability to connect with individuals, couples, and families from different walks of life.

She also has extensive clinical and educational training in Solution Focused Therapy and completed an Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy certificate of completion under Dr. Sue Johnson from The International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy. Lastly, in an effort to enhance couples skills for those seeking premarital counseling, she is also a certified facilitator of Prepare/Enrich, the most widely used and validated premarital assessment and training program.

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As a therapist, my goal is to support you in achieving greater self awareness, building stronger relationships, and healing from past wounds. I approach my clients with compassion and empathy and I am dedicated to providing a safe space for individuals, couples, and families seeking deeper and more nourishing connections. I recognize that stressful and traumatic events can occur throughout life, often impacting our physical and emotional well being. I also believe, given the right tools and insights, we can explore these events and find ways to work through challenges and live a more authentic and meaningful life.

I practice from a person-centered, trauma informed framework. I enjoy working collaboratively with my clients, meeting them where they are, and creating goals that support their current needs and hopes for the future.

When working with couples, I take time to understand their perspectives, and I aim to identify areas of strength as well areas where the couple could integrate new habits and tools. I utilize research-based approaches such as Gottman Method Couples Therapy and Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) during the sessions, in hopes of creating opportunities to increase connection and manage challenging or toxic interactions. While working with families and individuals, I integrate traditional psychotherapy methods with experiential tools found in art therapy and mindfulness-based therapy. I believe in the mind body connection and have seen how powerful art can be in externalizing and processing difficult trauma narratives. I am also trained and experienced in utilizing a therapy technique called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) with survivors of trauma; EMDR is a method of psychotherapy that is proven to be highly effective in significantly decreasing emotional distress after a traumatic event and can be effective in the treatment of complex trauma, phobias, anxiety, and PTSD.

Mrs. Elizabeth Amaro received a BFA from Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and art therapy from Antioch University Seattle. Mrs. Amaro is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist as well as professional artist. Mrs. Amaro forms her work on identifying and implementing culturally relevant, systems-focused interactions using her extensive training in art and trauma therapy. She incorporates her formal art training and experience as well as evidence-based therapeutic practices to meet the needs of diverse populations. Mrs. Amaro has also worked extensively with couples, families, and survivors of childhood abuse and sexual assault at the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center as well as the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center. Throughout these collective experiences, she has witnessed the power of art and mindfulness as effective tools for safe healing from trauma, victimization and other life issues. She is also bilingual and speaks both English and Spanish fluently. Her areas of expertise include trauma/post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, life transitions, stress reduction, marital conflict, postpartum anxiety and depression, and managing life’s challenges. She has extensive training and experience in virtual therapy and currently only has virtual sessions available.

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